1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic cutting and crimping apparatus that cuts, strips the insulation covering from, and applies solderless terminals (crimp-on terminals) to both ends of an insulated electrical wire use, for example, in a wire harness of a vehicular electrical system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An automatic cutting and crimping apparatus of this type was disclosed as a terminal crimping apparatus in Japanese laid-open patent application publication 63-40869. As shown in FIG. 1, this terminal crimping apparatus performs continuous crimping of terminals T onto the stripped end Wa of a wire W, via a crimping machine 2 that is disposed on a base 1a. The terminal crimping apparatus 1 performs reciprocal movement in the forward and reverse directions (crimping machine 2 side) via a horizontal shaft 1b, which is fixed within the base 1a, and has a wire guiding and grasping tool 3, which reciprocally oscillates to the left and to the right (for example, in the direction of a wire feeder not shown).
The wire guiding and grasping tool 3 prevents improper terminal crimping that can be caused by bending of the end T of the wire W and by sagging of the end T of the wire W, this tool having an arm 4, which can slide freely on the horizontal shaft 1b on the base end 4a. As shown in FIG. 1 through FIG. 3, a guide tube 5, which extends in the direction of the wire feed and into which the wire is inserted, is mounted to the end 4b of the arm 4. On the end of the guide tube 5 are removably mounted a connection tube 6 and, via a plurality of bolts 7a and 7b, a nozzle 8, which serves as an auxiliary guiding member. The nozzle 8 is formed by a vertically spit outer tube 8a, which is held to the connection tube 6 by a bolt, and a cylindrical tight coil spring 8b, which is mated to the outer tube 8a. The nozzle 8 is mounted to the guide tube 5 via the connection tube 6 and the bolt 7b. The wire inside the guide tube 5 is held by pin 9b, which is fixed to the end of a piston rod 9a of an air cylinder, and by a compression coil spring 9c that is disposed around the pin 9b.
When the wire guiding and grasping tool 3 is inclined toward the side, so that the guide tube 5 is aligned with the wire feeder (not shown in the drawing), a feed roller (not shown in the drawing) feeds a prescribed length of the wire W, through the guide tube 5 and the tight coil spring 8b, to the cutting and stripping unit (not shown in the drawing) which is disposed in the feed direction. The wire W is cut at the cutting and stripping unit and stripped of its insulation covering, and is then feed to the crimping machine 2 by the wire guiding and grasping tool 3. Next, the crimping machine 2 crimps a terminal T onto the stripped end Wa of the wire W. When this is done, as shown in FIG. 3, although the wire W describes a lazy S shape within the bend of the tight coil spring 8b, after crimping of the terminal T, the resilient return of the tight coil spring 8b returns the wire to its original straight condition.
In the above-described terminal crimping apparatus 1, however, when changing the diameter of the wire to various different diameters, it was necessary to loosen the plurality of bolts 7a and 7b which held the connection tube 6 so as to replace the connection tube 6 and the nozzle 8 with a connection tube 6 and nozzle 8 suitable for the new wire size. For this reason, the task of replacing the nozzle 8, for example, became complex and required a great deal of time and effort. Additionally, because the guide tube 5 was fixed to the end 4b, there was a limitation on the types of wire that could be accommodated.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention, in view of the above-noted drawbacks in the related art, to provide an automatic cutting and stripping apparatus which facilitates the changing of the nozzle and other components to suit a plurality of different wire types, and which also reduces the time and labor required to perform the replacement.